Assam woman, accomplice arrested with heroin, illegal opium in Uttar Pradesh

A suspected woman smuggler from Assam, along with a local accomplice were arrested in Uttar Pradesh after over 470 grams (heroin - 211 grams; illegal opium- 265 gms) of contraband was allegedly recovered from their possession. 

The Uttar Pradesh Police and the Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) also seized Rs 71,120 in cash, a country-made pistol, a Bitcoin mining machine and other hi-tech gadgets from them.

The arrested woman, Priyanka Das, was allegedly delivering drugs in Bareilly and was aided by Simran Kaur, a local resident involved in the city's narcotics distribution network, officials said.

Inspector Dhananjay Pandey, SHO, Baradari police station, said the ANTF acted on intelligence inputs shared by Nagaland Police, which indicated that a trafficker named Vimol Karmakar had sent a heroin and opium consignment to Bareilly using mobile numbers linked to his wife Priyanka Das.

Following the information, the ANTF’s Bareilly unit traced the suspects using technical surveillance.

Both women have been booked under relevant sections of the NDPS Act and the Arms Act, he said.

The official also said that the gang had been supplying drugs from the Northeast to Bareilly, Lucknow and other parts of western Uttar Pradesh.

Sharing the details of their capture, Pandey said police intercepted Priyanka Das on University Road and found her carrying 211 grams of heroin, cash and a mobile phone. The heroin was confirmed using a drug detection kit.

Based on her interrogation, the police raided the house of Simran in Sanjay Nagar area of the city and recovered 265 grams of opium, a country-made pistol, a bottle of hydrochloric acid, a Bitcoin mining machine, a laptop, a DVD player, an iPad, two electronic scales and three mobile phones, he added.

Simran admitted to having supplied the opium consignment to her brothers, Jagjeet alias Kapil and Gurpreet alias Gopi, a few days earlier, the SHO claimed.

A Swift Dzire car (UK-06 AJ-0492), registered in Gurpreet’s name and allegedly used for drug trafficking, was also seized from the location, the police said.